100 and Done! (Countries that is...)

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We are back! This last trip brought the total countries visited to 100! It is a crazy milestone. It is difficult, time-consuming and can be (IS) expensive. After I got back from Antarctica in 2007, I started thinking about it. After 2010 I was thinking about it more (as I moved from NY to Georgia) and in 2014 it had become a real goal. Between Angie and I we have been to 109 Countries. We are tied at 100 countries each. We have 9 countries different in our lists. For example, I have been to San Marino. She has not. She has been to Israel. I have not, yet. There has been some fun competition in this area. That's why we had to establish rules. 1.) Must be listed (as a country) with the US State Department 2.) Being in an airport doesn't count. You have to get through immigration somehow and not in a DMZ or a no-mans-land 3.) A passport stamp is not required. I have been to Canada, Paraguay, and Uruguay without getting my passport stamped. There are friendly borders in many places...
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The skua gets a bad rap. This bird is somehow considered to be of poor moral character because it eats penguin chicks and eggs. It is a lot better than what humans do. The skua is really quite amazing. They live 30 to 40 years and of course they are pretty tough birds. They get lighter in color as they get older. There was a skua about 30 feet away from the helo when we took off the other day. I thought for sure he was going to get blown away. Somehow this bird (only very slightly ruffled)stayed on the nest.

Today I am off to the top of Mt. Terror. It can get cold up there of course. The weather really needs to be watched. None of the helo pilots like to fly up there. I think they really do like it, but they make it a bigger deal as sort of a self-created drama.

Dave Infantine retires from work today from Raymond and before that, IBM. Congratulations Dave.

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